Physical literacy and sports – how to make happy young people ? Erasmus Project

Project Title

Physical literacy and sports – how to make happy young people ?

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Health and wellbeing; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

The focus on physical and mental health is growing fast these years. Especially when we look at young people. Right now we see a lot of young people who are having a hard time when they are teenagers. They put up so many demands for themselves.They want to be perfect in school, they want to hang out with the right friends, they want to look in a certain way, they have to be online all the time. These ideals create impossible but also unwanted pressure on young people’s lives and a distorted view on what it means to be a human being. Can we as the adult people who are around them so many hours help them? I think we can! We have to help them gain more self-confidence and self-esteem in order for them to make the right choices for themsleves instead of following trends and feeling unable to live up to the ideals. Teachers in the school in Denmark are changing their ways of teaching. We are starting to talk about physical literacy, we are using movement/motion as a didactic way to implement different kind of academic school things and increase learning. However our knowledge on the area is lacking, we need to know more about how physical exercise and movement impacts the learning proces but also want to explore how being physically active together with other young people can affect the well-being and contribute to a positive development in young people as individuals but also as a group. These issues are not Danish, they are at least European if not global. Young people live their lives online bringing the whole world into their living rooms. Being internationally oriented is a natural part of a young persons life. Therefore the solution is not to be found nationally but internationally. We need to address the issues together in order to make sure that this generation of young people find a way to strengthen their well-being and interact with each other with a different focus than showing the world how perfect your life is and to make sure that young people stay motivated to learn, stay in school, be educated and thereby over all increase their quality of life.
We aim for the students to gain knowledge about active living and healthy living in different cultures in order for them gain a broader perspective on their own lives and realize that a good life can take many different shapes. We aim for the students to experience how being physically active together with other young people increases well-being and their belief in own abilities and thereby gain faith in their own feelings and choices enabling them to make their own choices regardless what the trend might tell them. We aim for the students to practise discussing and reflecting on their own lives as well as the lives of others in order to get a sense of what a good life is to them and how to live it.
The students partaking in this project will be students in lower secondary school at the ages of 13-16. The age group has been chosen for different reasons. First of all they are the age group relevant to the issues raised in this project. These young people are the ones struggling og starting to feel the pressure of performing, not for their own sake but for the sake of appearance and image. These young people are in the beginning of their teenager years and have to start reflecting on their own lives. This project wants to be a part of this process within the students and young people as well as want to make an effort to help these students stay motivated to educate and keep developing throughout their lives.
The purpose of the project is to develop practise and create a room for discussions about the relevant issues that are necessary for young people as well as teachers to reflect and have ideas as to solve the issues that the project addresses. Therefore the participating schools have every intention and hope of being able to use the results both physical and developments of attitudes and values in the future and independently from this project and the specific group of students participating in the project. It is the intention of the participating schools that the results can be seen as representative for a more general way of working with young people and children.
The participating schools will share their results with their colleagues both locally and in broader networks making the discussions of the project accessable for others to partake in and thereby letting the findings of this project be the base of pedagogical development at the participating schools where all staff need to consider if the way they teach young people is in accordance with what this generation of young people need.
It is the attitude of the participating schools in this project that the results of this project will be able to inspire a movement that has already begun but need inspiration and concrete ideas as to how to carry out the change in the way of working with young people that is necessary if we are to help young people become confident and balanced adults.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 89942 Eur

Project Coordinator

Holluf Pile Skole & Country: DK

Project Partners

• I.C. FRANCESCO PETRARCA
• Colegio Estudiantes